Student Dyes Hair Pink For Breast Cancer

Should This Girl Be in Trouble For Coloring Her Hair Pink?

A junior high student wore the pink hair trend to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and she now faces school suspension. South Carolina student Rheanne Sargent and her mother, Denise, dip-dyed their hair pink together to honor the many women who face breast cancer. In fact, Rheanne's grandmother died from the disease. But when she entered school proudly wearing her new look, she was sentenced to one day of in-school suspension due to a violation of the dress code.

The Belton Middle School student handbook states that "non-human hair color or color spray is not permitted (blue, green, pink, purple/burgundy, etc.)." Although her daughter's pink tips are clearly in violation of the rules, Denise Sargent wants an exception due to the honorable cause. "I do believe if the child wants to be an individual and show that they're supporting something that's killing thousands of women, I believe, yeah, they should make an exception. They should change the rule," Denise told WYFF4 News. For now, Rheanne has returned to class with her BCA-colored strands hidden.

Have a BRAIN! What ever happened to having to think and not just have rules in black and white. People are supposed to make decisions based on individual cases, like judges, not blanket suspensions. It is CRAZY to suspend this girl. What happens when someone does something really serious? When suspension is overused, which it obviously is, it loses it's sting.

As much as I sympathize with the cause (I lost my mother to breast cancer), exceptions are a slippery slope and must be given careful consideration. We all know that one of the guiding principles of child rearing is consistent application of the rules and that any deviation must be carefully considered. The young lady and her mom should have approached the school with the idea before she actually violated the code by wearing pink hair. The school might still have said no and explained why the rule was in place. But, who knows? Perhaps the school would have come on board with the idea and actually incorporated it into an activity. At the school where I worked, the kids from various clubs pinned pink streaks in their hair and had a bake sale to raise money for breast cancer research. It was a school sanctioned activity even though the dress code prohibited unnatural hair color. But the day after the sale, the pink streaks were gone and everything was back to code.
Bottom line: If the mother wanted an exception, the time to ask was BEFORE she sent her daughter to school in clear violation of the rules. I'm sure the young lady was terribly embarrassed by what happened as a result of her mother's poor judgement.